Conventionally, a ribbon-shaped element having electrical wires such as printed wire and the like is used for various electrical wires in terms of thinness or flexibility. The electrical wires of the ribbon-shaped element are electrically connected to electrical wires of a printed circuit board or the like via an electrical connector. The electrical connector is provided with a plurality of contact elements within a housing thereof and an operating portion which is so-called a rotating actuator, and the contact elements are elastically deformed by a rotational movement of the actuator to grip the ribbon-shaped element at a predetermined position of the contacts.
An electrical connector provided with two types of contact elements is disclosed in Patent Document 1. Two types of contact elements form a contact array with a predetermined interval with respect to insertion direction of a ribbon-shaped element. A first contact element is connected to an end side thereof with an upper beam and a lower beam in a cantilever form, and a second contact element is connected to an end side thereof with an upper beam and a lower beam in a cantilever form with a rod-shaped beam supported in a pendant fashion by a terminal end portion and a connecting portion of the upper beam. In respect to the upper beam of the first contact element and the rod-shaped beam of the second contact element, both are locked with a moving portion which rotates around the shaft of the actuator.
When describing an open state of the actuator, in the first contact element, since a sectional portion in a long direction of the moving portion of the actuator deforms as if pushing up the upper beam, the opposing gap between the upper beam and the lower beam is widened. In the second contact element, a sectional portion in a short direction of the moving portion of the actuator is locked with the vicinity of one end portion of the rod-shaped beam, and the vicinity of the other end portion thereof forming the contacts with the ribbon-shaped element is positioned such that it is spaced away from the lower beam with an interval that is approximately the same as the thickness of the ribbon-shaped element.
Subsequently, when describing a closed state of the actuator, in the first contact element, the sectional portion in a short direction of the moving portion of the actuator is locked with the upper beam, and thus the upper beam recovers elastically to narrow the opposing interval between the upper beam and the lower beam. In the second contact element, since the sectional portion in a long direction of the moving portion of the actuator deforms as if pushing up the vicinity of the one end portion of the rod-shaped beam, the vicinity of the other end portion forming the contacts with the ribbon-shaped element is positioned in an direction approaching the lower beam compared with the open state of the actuator according to the lever principle. In this way, two kinds of contact elements can grip the ribbon-shaped element.
In the electrical connector disclosed in Patent Document 1, a structure is realized that, when the ribbon-shaped element is inserted in the open state of the actuator, the ribbon-shaped element is contacted to the vicinity of the other end portion of the rod-shaped beam of the second contact element and is inserted with a low insertion force (hereinafter, abbreviated to “LIF”), as well as is inserted with a zero insertion force (hereinafter, abbreviated to “ZIF”) with no contact to the first contact element. The structure has an advantage that, when the actuator changes to a closed state after inserted with no load due to the ribbon-shaped element having flexibility, two kinds of the contact elements grip the ribbon-shaped element at the same time to prevent a bending of the ribbon-shaped element.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Publication No. 3619822